Alliance Online News: HUD Secretary Donovan to Keynote Conference

Newsletters | April 29, 2014

The Alliance is proud to announce that United States Secretary for Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan will deliver a keynote address at the Alliance's 2014 National Conference on Ending Homelessness. Secretary Donovan is scheduled to deliver the keynote address on the second day of the conference, Wednesday, July 30. Secretary Donovan has served in his current leadership role at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) since 2009. As HUD Secretary, he oversees the agency's commitment to ensuring access to affordable housing and building strong neighborhoods.

The conference will take place at the Renaissance Washington DC Hotel July 29 to 31. If you have not yet registered for the conference, make sure to take advantage of the early registration rate of $500 by registering online by 3 p.m. ET on Tuesday, May 13. Look for future updates and additional information about the conference on the conference website and in upcoming editions of Alliance Online News

If you are homeless or formerly homeless, you may be eligible for a scholarship. The deadline to apply for a scholarship is Tuesday, May 27. To learn more about the scholarship program and apply online, visit the scholarships page of the conference website.

Unemployment Insurance Extension Bill Stalled in the House
The White House, Senate leaders, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi continue to pressure the House to act on legislation already passed by the Senate that would extend emergency unemployment benefits for the nearly 4 million Americans whose benefits have expired.

Senator Heller (R-NV), a co-sponsor of the Senate measure, supports a compromise that would tie an overhaul of job training programs to the extension. His office is working to arrange a meeting with House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH).

Other Republican proposals involve scaling back the benefits as unemployment rates decline; creating jobs though the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline; repealing the medical device tax; and replacing the 30 hour work week figure referenced in the Affordable Care Act with a 40 hour work week.

CBO Releases Analysis of President's Budget Proposal
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has released the report "Analysis of the President's 2015 Budget," which analyzes the President's fiscal year (FY) 2015 Budget Proposal and presents updated baseline budget projections. According to the CBO's analysis, Federal Housing Administration (FHA) receipts would generate $4.3 billion less in funding than that projected in the President's Budget Proposal. Funding HUD programs at the level requested in the Administration's budget will therefore require reallocation of funds from other areas in order to make up the difference.

House Budget Committee to Hold Hearing on Poverty
This Wednesday, April 30, at 10:30 am ET, the House Budget Committee will hold a hearing titled "A Progress Report on the War on Poverty: Lessons from the Frontlines." During the hearing, members of the committee will hear firsthand accounts of the challenges facing communities struggling with poverty. It is the third in a series of hearings the House Budget Committee has held on poverty-related issues, including "A Progress on the War on Poverty: Expanding Economic Opportunity," and "The War on Poverty: A Progress Report."

Congress Returns from Recess
Yesterday, April 28, both chambers of Congress returned from their spring recess for a long upcoming work period.

USICH Updates Federal Strategic Plan to End Homelessness

The U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) has released an update to the Federal Strategic Plan to End Homelessness, "Opening Doors" that incorporates the latest data on the number of people experiencing homelessness. The update also charts the progress USICH and other agencies have made toward the implementing the plan. Since the plan's release in 2010, homelessness among Veterans has declined by 24 percent, and between 2010 and 2013 the number of people experiencing chronic homelessness declined about 16 percent.

The Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Office of Early Childhood Development (ECD) has released a resource for homeless shelter and housing service providers that provides useful information about early child development and addressing developmental delays. The resource is part of a series that promotes the health, development, and well-being of very young children.

The latest data show that extremely low-income households face a shortage of 7 million affordable housing units. In this post, we look at the prospect for financing the he National Housing Trust Fund, which close the gap between the number of extremely low income renter households and the number of affordable units of housing available to them.

In the third post of our "Keys to High Performance" series, which focuses on improving performance in homelessness assistance systems, we look at what an effective governance entity can do for a system.